


Yang's Memories & Echo

by Kiiratam



Series: Monsters of Mistral [6]
Category: RWBY
Genre: Canon Compliant, F/F, Fluff, Highly self-aware horror
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-09
Updated: 2020-06-09
Packaged: 2021-03-04 06:22:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,360
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24619042
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kiiratam/pseuds/Kiiratam
Summary: Yang's out in the woods, with only Bumblebee and her scroll for company....Right?......right?For BMBLB Week 2020, Day 8: Bonus Day/VA Appreciation Day.Takes place between Volumes 4 and 5. (My BMBLB fic index)
Relationships: Blake Belladonna/Yang Xiao Long
Series: Monsters of Mistral [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1546306
Comments: 9
Kudos: 36





	Yang's Memories & Echo

"All right, Blake, recording. Whenever you're ready."

  
Blake adjusted her bow and looked into the camera with apprehension. "Is it too late to back out?"

  
"I mean, it's your project. You can always do something else."

  
She sighed and shook her head. "It's due tomorrow, and I'd like to sleep tonight. Do I look okay?"

  
"Great! You could stab Grimm with your eyeliner. And your bow's perfect."

  
Blake reached up to her bow again, just touching it. Apparently reassured, she settled into a more confident stance. "Okay, take one. This is a recitation of Sapphire FitzBattleaxe's Φαινεται μοι." She took a breath, and began.

>   
> "'That man to me seems equal to the gods,  
> that man who sits opposite you  
> and close to you-'"

Blake shook her head. "Ugh, I messed it up. Take two?"

  
"Take two."

  
"This is a recitation of Sapphire FitzBattleaxe's Φαινεται μοι."

> 'That man to me seems equal to the gods,  
> the man who sits opposite you  
> and close by listens  
> to your sweet voice
> 
> and your enticing laughter -  
> that indeed has stirred up the heart in my breast.  
> For whenever I look at you even briefly  
> I can no longer say a single thing,
> 
> but my tongue is frozen in silence;  
> instantly a delicate flame runs beneath my skin;  
> with my eyes I see nothing;  
> my ears make a whirring noise.
> 
> A cold sweat covers me,  
> trembling seizes my body,  
> and I am greener than grass.  
> Lacking but little of death do I seem.
> 
> But all is to be dared.'"

She kept focusing on the camera, then closed her eyes for a long moment. Blake opened her eyes and asked, "Was that okay?"

* * *

The video ended. Yang set her scroll down on her boots, and checked her dinner. Still pork & beans. Almost to a decent temperature, though. A few more minutes, and she could eat. 

  
She sat back down on her bedroll, and picked her scroll back up. Yang closed the video she'd taken of Blake, before she was tempted to replay it. Propping her scroll up against her boots, she started capturing a new video.

  
"Hellllllllooooo, well, just me. If things were different, I'd just upload this to the CCTS and total strangers would send me weird comments on it. And if I was lucky, it'd _only_ be stuff like, 'can I smell your hair?'" Yang made a face that adequately expressed how she felt about _that_. "But it's just me and wilderness, because if things were different, I probably wouldn't be out here in the middle of Nowhere, Anima."

  
She snorted. "No offense to the proud inhabitants of Nowhere. You've got some, uh, very nice trees? And the Grimm aren't bad." Yang shrugged. "A Beowulf yesterday, but it's been quiet. Anyway, if my map is right, I should be able to hit a town tomorrow. I really need to talk to someone. Even if it's just a grocer. And I would commit a felony to eat something other than pork & beans. Yeah, I know, I've only had it two days in a row. Unlike my father, I can't eat this stuff indefinitely. Grapes, if there was one thing that made me learn how to cook... Have _you_ ever had pork and beans stir fry? **Don't** _._ "

  
A sound caught Yang's ears, and she looked off into the darkness surrounding her camp. "Hello?" She got to her feet, grabbing her scroll, switching on the flashlight. It had either been keep her night vision or cook dinner, and the prospect of _cold_ pork & beans was too terrible to contemplate.

  
After a moment of silence that loomed like a cliff, the wind susurrused through the trees, seeming to echo Yang's _hello_ back at her.

  
Yang glanced at her scroll. It was still taking video. "Okay, I'm going to leave you running, because I'm pretty sure that the woods are talking, and I want evidence."

  
_don't_

  
"Yeah, like that. That's the creepy stuff I want a copy of."

  
_to talk to talk to talk to talk to talk to talk to talk to_

  
Sweeping her scroll and light over the margins of the grove, Yang engaged Ember Celica - the left half of her, at least. "Look, I've seen a dozen versions of this movie, and there's literally nothing worse you can do to me than just let me eat dinner."

  
_dinner dinner dinner eat dinner eat dinner eat eat eat_

  
She sighed. "I was afraid of that. You don't want to eat me. I'm mostly hair by volume."

  
_volume vO **L** uMe VOlum **E** V **OL** U **M** E **VOLUME** voL **U** Me volume_

  
"You're like Zwei with a new toy."

  
_new toy new toy new toy new toy_

  
Yang would have raised her eyes to the sky, but she thought that taking her eyes off the woods qualified as a Bad Plan. "Why do I keep giving you straight lines?"

  
_keep keep keep keep_

  
"Okay, either you understand me - probably because you've eaten a lot of people - or you're the most selective echo I've ever heard. Which is it?"

  
_which which which which which which_

  
She didn't see anything in the woods. Not with her light, or her night vision, which was slowly coming back. Which meant that it was either a really patient Grimm - who nearly talked - or it was something else. Yang picked her words carefully. "How do you feel about ambient noises?"

  
_feel_

  
She flicked to the white noise generator on her scroll, and tapped the Ocean Waves option.

  
No response.

  
"Maybe you don't know that one."

  
_know_

  
That eliminated a whole slew of options. Yang decided not to risk 'Distant Thunder' or 'Crackling Fireplace'. And the last thing she needed was to pick 'Wind Chimes' and turn this into even more of a horror movie. She wasn't sure if stuff like 'Wind in Trees' and 'Night in the Woods' would even work. So Yang selected "Light Showers."

  
And waited.

  
...And waited.

  
Had it been scared off? By fake rain noises?

  
Yang strained to listen - and realized her dinner was bubbling over.

  
Trying not to look at the fire, trying to preserve her night vision, she pulled the pan off the fire. It could absolutely get less edible. Yang just hoped _she_ was off the menu.

  
There was a rush of wind, and her gaze snapped to the treeline.

  
She felt a raindrop.

  
And another.

  
Trying not to say anything, she rigged a quick rain shelter using Bumblebee as an anchor, and hauled her bedroll, boots, saddlebags, and dinner inside. She rolled up her scroll, and tucked it away.

  
Yang wasn't sure if it was gone. But she also wasn't sure what it _was_ , and she couldn't stay on watch all night.

  
She ate quickly, periodically poking her head out of her shelter to check the woods. Dark and damp. Her fire fought a protracted losing action against the rain, finally sputtering out.

  
No more echoes. Just the rain.

  
Ember Celica was ready, and she had Bumblebee at her back. Yang knew she wasn't going to get great sleep like this - but that was hardly new.

  
If she made town tomorrow, she could ask about whatever this was.

  
Or not. No need to scare people.

  
Yang drifted off to sleep.

* * *

_For whenever I look at you even briefly_   
_I can no longer say a single thing,_   
_but my tongue is frozen in silence_

Yang opened her eyes. It was light outside. And silent.

  
She slipped out of her shelter, boots in hand.

  
A bird started singing.

  
And in the sunlight, last night seemed like only a strange dream. She checked her scroll, pulling up the video from last night. < **ERROR** \- File corrupted.> Yang just rolled her eyes, because of _course_ it was corrupted. Those were the rules.

  
Yang got packed up, snacking on an apple. Shrugging her jacket on, she took a last look around. It all seemed normal. She cleared her throat, feeling a little silly, and told the woods, "Nice to meet you. I'm heading out. Bye."

  
Mounting Bumblebee, she got back on the road. It was going to be a long day if she wanted to make it to the next town.

**Author's Note:**

> Over the roar of Bumblebee's engine, Yang didn't hear the whisper of wind that slipped after her.  
>  _goodbye_
> 
> Sapphire FitzBattleaxe remains Sappho of Lesbos. The four stanzas are all translated by Julia Dubnoff; the last line is Anne Carson's translation (abbreviated, because it's only the first line of another stanza that we don't have). Any errors in Greek transcription are mine.


End file.
